Tech plans renovation of south end of football stadium with suites, indoor facilities, hall of fame

Texas Tech plans to refurbish the south end of Jones AT&T Stadium into a three-level structure with a Hall of Fame, club seating and 30 suites and build a new indoor football practice facility and indoor track immediately south of the stadium as part of an ambitious $100 million campaign. More details are to be unveiled Friday.

Designs show the indoor football practice facility and the indoor track sitting side by side just west of the existing Football Training Facility and practice fields. The indoor football practice facility runs north-south and the indoor track runs east-west, perpendicular to the practice facility.

A-J Media obtained plans for the project via an open records request.

Tech has called a news conference for noon Friday to discuss the campaign. Tech officials declined comment on the project until then.

Officials first made public the “Campaign for Fearless Champions” in February at post-signing day football dinners across the state. At that time, the athletic department revealed its intent to do 25 projects involving all 17 sports it sponsors, which is still the plan.

According to literature on the campaign, Tech lists eight such projects as funded and 17 that are “identified.” Seven of the eight funded projects have already been completed, as Tech considers the campaign as having started in fiscal year 2013.

The Jones Stadium south end zone renovation would keep the existing building, currently comprising mostly office and meeting-room space, and do a complete interior demolition to make room for a new Hall of Fame, club area and athlete dining hall. The building would be widened southward with a brick-work facade on its south exterior.

Tech plans to build a two-level addition above that to house 15 suites at the second level and 15 suites at the third level. The 30 new ones would give the stadium 114 suites.

The indoor football practice facility will include a 100-yard field. Designs show it parallel to the Red Raiders’ two practice fields. Next to the football facility is the new indoor track facility, designed to house a 200-meter track, event and athletic support facilities, locker rooms, building operations and seating for 4,000.

The renderings show both facilities with brick exteriors, window panes and domed ceilings. The indoor football facility sits on the area currently occupied by the Athletic Training Center, a building that opened in 1985 that Tech officials now consider mostly obsolete.

Jones AT&T Stadium’s Double-T scoreboard, erected in the late 1970s, is gone in the designs.

The combined layout of the two facilities also will require removal of existing staff parking to the west. The west side of the track building will be right next to Red Raider Avenue that runs north and south.

Sitting between the south end zone building and the football and track structures is a plaza area with entry-type archways on the east end at University Avenue and on the west end at the southwest corner of the stadium. The Masked Rider statue that currently resides in the south building lobby is shown in renderings centrally located outside in the plaza area.

Projects that are considered revenue-generating, such as the south end zone building with its 30 suites, may begin construction before being fully funded. However, the south end zone building project is not expected to start after the 2014 season.

Seven recently completed projects are considered part of the campaign. Those include Jones Stadium’s north end colonnade and video board, the Rawls Course bunkers restoration and the outdoor track and field team building at the Fuller Track Complex.

Other funded and completed portions are an indoor soccer facility, United Supermarkets Arena weight room renovation and a grandstand and clubhouse roof at baseball’s Rip Griffin Park.

A United Supermarkets team facilities renovation is funded but not completed.

Tech considers the 25 building projects one of four components to the campaign.

The second listed objective is raising $10 million in scholarship endowments to reach a total endowment goal of $20 million.

The third component is raising $5 million to endow the Fearless Champions Leadership Academy, and the fourth objective is $10 million in new planned gifts.

Tech says it will consider the campaign ongoing with no end date until all 25 projects and four components are funded.

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Facilities

Progress towards the facility upgrades/additions is underway as a total of eight projects have recently been completed or have been funded and are in progress. Those projects include:

United Supermarkets Arena Team Facilities Renovations

Indoor Soccer Facility

Football Video Board

North End Zone Colonnade

United Supermarkets Arena Weight Room Renovation

Baseball Grandstand and Clubhouse Roof

Track and Field Team Building

The Rawls Course Bunker Restoration

A total of 25 facility projects are the focus of the campaign and will include the construction of an indoor football training facility, a renovation of the south end zone stadium building and a new indoor track and field complex.